


You Can't Leave Me That Easily

by Kca1516



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers Family, BAMF Steve Rogers, BAMF Tony Stark, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, Love Confessions, M/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-19 03:07:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22004224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kca1516/pseuds/Kca1516
Summary: Tony gets kidnapped by Hydra, Steve will do anything to get him back.*This is a Christmas/Bday present I've been trying to give to my cousin for a year now, finally got done with the first chapter lol, love ya bb
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	You Can't Leave Me That Easily

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of those fics that I edited but it could probably use some more of it, so prob when I get the next ch out I will come back and edit this again too
> 
> MERRY CHRISTMAS

Feet splashed in the moldy water puddles of the dark cavernous tunnel. Steve kept track of each step taken by the guards around him, hoping that somehow the gait of the person he wished for most in the world would suddenly appear alongside the rest. 

The spreading ache that had never left him since the whole endeavor started flared to life again.

Steve’s lungs constricted as the air rushed from his sternum. His steps faltered in his attempt to breathe stale air back into his body, the soldier behind him kicked the back of his heel as punishment. Steve faltered briefly and continued walking, barely acknowledging the hit. He could breathe again. 

Nothing mattered to him. Not now, not when he was so close to facing his deserved retribution.

He had left Tony in the hands of these monsters for two weeks, he would never be done repaying that debt.

The tunnel the guards were taking him down began to incline, which Steve took notice of. Not that it was a choice. It was programmed into him to take account of his surroundings in order to derive a battle plan. Yet, his skills still hadn’t been enough to clue him into the obvious. Tony was being kept underground. How had he missed that? How had he overlooked that option? What good was his enhanced brain and abilities if they had failed him so spectacularly?

The air grew musty and wet the further they traveled underground. Water from above fought to drip down, every once and a while the plop of a splattered raindrop joined their footsteps. No one else would have been able to hear it. So of course Steve could. 

Maybe that’s why he felt this so much. Maybe it wasn’t just his physical capabilities that had been enhanced, but his emotional state, too. Maybe that’s why Natasha, and Bruce, and Thor and all the other Avengers hadn’t understood his desperate need to get Tony back. Because he felt the man’s loss ten times more than they ever could. He loved Tony more than they ever could. 

That was the kicker, wasn’t it. Steve was soul crushingly in love with Tony Stark, and Tony might not even be alive to get to hear it. Tony Stark may never hear that he was so loved by Steve Rogers. 

The soldier bit his lip, he knew he had to get rid of thoughts like those if he was to continue on with this. He had to have hope that Tony was still alive if he didn’t want to be devoured by the hopelessness of the situation.

There wouldn’t have been a situation to deal with in the first place if he had just complied with Hydra’s wishes in the first place.

That stung.

Two weeks ago a message had been sent to Avengers Tower. Two weeks ago had been the day Steve was finally going to ask Tony out. Two weeks ago Steve Rogers had died and an empty husk of pain and boiling anger had taken his place.

The message had been sent to Jarvis to ensure the Avengers heard it. Though they all knew the message had been specified for Steve.

_ “On eight o’clock Saturday morning, April sixth, Anthony Edward Stark was abducted from the streets of New York City, USA.” The voice was clinical as it continued to take in details about Tony, the message played through every room in the tower. The Avengers awaited with bated breath and listened. _

_ “...testing will start now. We are going to study the amount of pain an average man can take before he breaks. Starting with medical utensils, moving onward as time progresses.” _

_ The recording cut off but was replaced by another. _

_ “Avengers, this is Hydra speaking, we have your hero in red and gold. He sits in a chair awaiting his torment that will come day after day until you give us what we want. Give us Steve Rogers in exchange for Tony Stark. Your comrades location will be sent to your computers. If in twenty four hours you have not handed over Captain America, Stark is ours. If you come with backup and a plan of attack, we will know and any chance of a peaceful resolution will be lost. Your 24 hours starts-” _

_ “Steve,” a shout broke through the speaker that Steve would know if he went blind and deaf, “don’t listen to him, don’t-” _

_ A resounding crack echoed through the message that could only be Tony getting slapped for his disruption.  _

_ “Your 24 hours start now,” came the voice from before sounding angrier than moments prior and then the line went dead. _

_ Steve didn’t know if he felt numb or if every emotion he could possible be feeling in that moment was rushing him all at once. He didn’t know which of the options he preferred.  _

__

_ The team was watching him, assessing him, trying to figure out what was going on in his head. He knew what they wanted from him. He knew that they wanted him to rise from his chair, a stream of sun beaming down on him from an open window bathing him in gold, god-like, light. He knew that they wanted him to give them the plan that he had miraculously come up with to save Tony, himself, and take down Hydra.  _

_ Maybe if the one person he relied on the most in these situations hadn’t been stolen from him, he might have. Now he was nothing, a phony, he had no right to lead his team when he had failed so miserably at keeping them all together. _

_ “Cap,” Bruce spoke up, finally breaking the blaring silence, “What do we do?” _

_ Steve wanted to laugh. The urge to cackle tickled the back of his throat until his eyes were wet with it. What did they do? What did they do now that Tony was gone? The answer was that there was no point to anything if Tony was gone. Couldn’t they see that?  _

_ “Isn’t it obvious?” Steve said, sardonic in a way that was usually reserved by Tony, “I turn myself in.” _

_ The room erupted into chaos. _

_ ~~~~~~~~~~ _

Now Steve wished they had let him do his original plan. 

The soldiers around him continued to march him along.

He blamed himself.

He had let them talk him out of turning himself in. They had pushed on all his weak spots, telling him that Tony needed him to be here when he returned. Tony needed Steve to be strong for him. Tony needed him to keep his head on straight. Tony needed him alive. 

Didn’t they realize that Steve needed Tony alive, too? 

The day after Hydra’s deadline, Steve led the charge into the warehouse that the address had pointed them to. They were prepared to rein down hellfire and get their resident genius back. They hadn’t realized the chain of events that they had caused to ricochet by waiting that extra day to make a sufficient battle plan. They hadn’t realized the torment they would cause until it was too late. 

Breaking into the abandoned facility Hydra had pointed them to was too easy. They had prepared for hundreds of guards to be stationed at each exit and entrance point. 

They had found no one. 

They had expected to walk into a weapons goldmine, no doubt Hydra would try to get Tony to build firearms for them. 

The rooms were empty.

They had expected to find Tony Stark. 

He was nowhere to be found.

Somehow Hydra had cleared out the building in less than twenty four hours, if they had been there at all. Steve could recall Hawkeye commenting on the ease with which it took to infiltrate the building, saying maybe they had caught a break. But even from outside the structure Steve had known neither Hydra nor Tony would be there. 

They’d had twenty four hours to bargain with Hydra and they had blown it. They had been too prideful, too certain in their abilities to think they could be outsmarted. 

Even then Steve had only blamed himself, guilt manifested like mold inside of him. 

As his team had stumbled their way home that night, Steve hadn’t thought it would be able to get much worse. How ignorant he had been. That night, when the rest of the team was fast asleep and Steve was glaringly awake, Jarvis called for him. He had been told that an urgent message involving Tony came through on the genius’s workshop computer. Steve had jumped out of bed, ignoring Jarvis’s PSA of warning. Maybe Hydra had given him another chance. Maybe he was more important to them then Tony was and they were sending him another request for surrender. 

This time Steve wouldn’t be talked out of taking it. 

His false hope burned out of him as soon as Jarvis brought up the audio recording. 

Steve should have headed the A.I’s warning. He was woefully unprepared for the truth of what the audio contained. 

Screaming. Brutal, earsplitting, shrieking. 

Tony’s shrieking. 

The pleas for help were cut off abruptly, Steve didn’t know whether to be thankful or not, before another voice came across the recording.

“ _ We are displeased that you did not take our offer, Avengers. We never thought Captain America would let another suffer in his place, but no matter. You will come to us of your own volition one way or another. Everyday that you fail to find us and turn yourself in, you will get a recording of your teammates torture as incentive to do as we say- _ ”

“ _ Steve, don’t listen to him _ -”

Tony. Steve gripped the table under his fingers until it started to bend.

“ _ Silence _ ,” the other voice ordered, Tony didn’t make a sound after that, “ _ As for you Captain America, I leave you with good luck, time is ticking.” _

The message cut off. 

A beat of silence choked Steve before he ran to the bathroom and emptied the contents of his stomach. 

As promised the recordings came in daily after that. Steve obsessed over them. 

By the third day he was able to control his nausea when he started listening to them. By the fourth day his teammates banned him from listening to them altogether. But every night Steve would sneak down to Tony’s workshop and force Jarvis to play them until Steve’s ears bled. Each day that resulted in no new information tormented Steve almost as much as the recordings did. 

They had a sadistic pattern to them. The recordings. 

The first day’s audio was a minute long, the second days audio was two minutes long, the third days audios three and so on and so on. On the recordings Tony didn’t cry out for anyone like in the first two, or even plead for mercy like one might expect. He just screamed. Steve wondered if that was because Tony had given up hope that someone would find him. That Steve would find him. 

It was on the seventh day, the lord’s day Steve thought bitterly, that Steve’s efforts paid off. He had been about to grab food from the kitchen for the first time in twenty four hours, the irony wasn’t lost on him, when his friend’s voices from the dining table kept him hidden in the nearby hallway. 

“-you’re sure these coordinates are accurate, that they’re not just another trick from Hydra?” came Clint’s voice.

“These were the coordinates the audios pointed to. See, the clips weren’t just a minute added per day, there was always a few extra seconds tacked onto the end. When I put the numbers together they were coordinates leading to an old, underground chamber system. What better place to hide the world’s most notorious terrorist group,” Bruce spoke up, excited in a way no one had been for a week.

“That doesn’t mean that it’s not a trap,” Clint pointed out, Steve kind of wanted to slap him.

“Even if it is,” said Natasha, “don’t we owe it to Tony to go through with it anyway?”

“He’d do the same for us,” Thor chimed in, the rest of the group made sounds of agreement.

“But, let’s make one thing clear,” Natasha continued, “No one tells Steve about this. He’s taking the loss the hardest and I don’t know if he can handle a potential let down again.”

Steve should have been angry at her for that, but he didn’t have it in him to care about anything besides the fact that they might know the whereabouts of Tony Stark.

His team’s voices began to blend over one another, and Bruce was forced to recount Tony’s coordinates. Steve felt lighter than he had in weeks.

~~~~~~~~~~

Steve had left soon after with nothing but the clothes on his back. It didn’t matter what weapons or armors he brought with him, he’d be stripped of them soon enough. He had no escape plan. He had no plan at all. Right now he wasn’t Captain America; the man who had saved the world biweekly. He was Steve Rogers; the man who was going to free the one person he loved above all else no matter the cost. 

Tony didn’t even know Steve loved him. For all their late night conversations, and early morning flirtings Tony was unaware of the extent of Steve’s feelings. Steve now knew Tony would never know. He just hoped he had done enough that Tony at least knew he cared. Steve cared more then he had any right to, but care and love he did. 

The guards around him came to a halt. Immediately, Steve was on guard. They had stopped him in the middle of another rocky corridor. 

Steve had thought about what would happen if this was all a trick and they tried to kill him before he got the chance to see if Tony was safe. He knew with only four guards against him he’d be able to fight his way out. He also weighed the negative effect that might occur if he made a move and this didn’t turn out to be a trap. He refused to ruin his chances of seeing Tony.

“Where are you taking me?” Steve asked as one of the guards separated from the rest of the group and started running his hand along the rocky wall. 

“Don’t ask questions,” was Steve’s only reply.

Steve was a step away from taking a swing when the lone guard stopped, and a click interrupted the silence. Miraculously, the wall to Steve’s right began to open to reveal the horrors that lay inside. One of the guards behind Steve pushed him forward. He realized he had been stuck in place, unable to move as he took in the infamous wonder before him. 

Rows upon rows of Hydra soldiers, dressed in dark leathers and masks, stood in lines on either sides of the room, all unmoving and silent. Their rows created a prolonged pathway to where a command center lay. There stood the figure of the man Steve figured was in charge of this all. The man who took Tony, a rush of anger threatened to take over him, but he kept it down. He couldn’t cause problems, his actions might result in punishment for Tony. He had to be strong.

Steve began to walk.

Unlike in the cave’s hallways, the floor he walked on was dry and polished. The slap of his footsteps bounced around the dome shaped cavern like a ping pong ball. Hydra flags hung loosely along the walls, but the artificial light from the carefully constructed electrical system aided in illuminating their design. This was what had been missing in the first warehouse the Avengers had stormed. With the way this was all set up, Steve was almost positive Hydra had never been at the original location.

“I was starting to think you would never show up, Captain,” said the man on the raised platform, snapping Steve’s attention back to the matter at hand.

“But all you heroes are the same,” the mystery man continued, “you can never give up an opportunity to sacrifice yourself for the greater good.”

The man clearly thought he had achieved something with that.

“Wouldn’t have to if you all would lie down and die when we beat you the first time,” Steve responded, too exhausted to feel anything but acceptance towards the conversation. 

It was strange to hear his own voice carry over the silence, and wondered if the men behind him were even alive.

“If you beat us the first time then how come we are still able to get back up when you leave,” the man chuckled, flirting around his platform but never facing Steve. 

“You talk about this as if it’s noble, this is nothing but a grown man throwing a tantrum. I’ve taken down every branch of Hydra I’ve ever encountered, don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re the exception.”

The man turned to face Steve.

“But I am.”

It was disappointing really. Steve had no idea who the man in front of him was. But the leering smile he gave Steve was more than enough to spark the loathing in his chest. This man had taken Tony, there was no where he could hide that Steve wouldn't find him.

His was tall, lanky in a way the Red Skull would have laughed at. His hair was a wild mess on top of his head, and the five o’clock shadow on his chin told Steve that he hadn’t shaved or probably bathed in a few days. He was a cheap imitation of the Hydra leaders before him. But there was an unhinged gleam in his eye that Steve took note of. The man was unassuming at first glance, but if he were to go off, he would leave a plume of untamable destruction in his wake. He wasn’t the worst of the Hydra men Steve had faced, but he was one of the unpredictable ones. That made him dangerous.

“I have something that my superiors before me didn’t,” the man's hands spasmed with excitement, “I have the key to your weakness, or as the world knows him, Tony Stark.”

The air in Steve’s lungs abandoned him, looking back he was sure the only reason he had stayed standing was because of the hands keeping hold of his bound arms. A pain had blindsided Steve that had started in his gut but had now infected his heart as well. This was why Steve had needed to keep his wits about him. This was why he had needed to make sure his walls were secure. Steve had tried to trick himself into thinking the situation was in control, that he was only doing what he was doing in order to save a teammate. But it was so much more than that. Steve loved Tony, and Hydra knew it. 

Steve wanted to scream, but with a strength he didn’t think even Dr. Erskine knew he was capable of, he gathered himself. Ignoring the fact that his entire body was shaking like a leaf. This was a pain he had never experienced before.

It looked like the Hydra leader knew it, too.

“Take him to one of the cells,” he said, “we’ve already wasted too much time, we are to finish what the Red Skull started.”

With a flourish of his hand, the man dismissed Steve as if he was a cockroach about to be crushed by a boot. Panic seized Steve, this wasn’t how this was supposed to go. He wasn’t supposed to be taken anywhere before he knew Tony was released.

“Wait,” the super soldier demanded, and even his guards came to a halt in their attempt to force Steve from the room. Didn’t they know that the only reason they had got him this far was because he allowed them to? Nonetheless, when their pulling stopped Steve knew he had an upper hand. Something was happening. Anger started to churn inside Steve. Something was  _ starting. _

“You promised that if I turned myself in, you’d let Tony go,” Steve said, electricity thrumming in his veins making his skin pulse. He wondered how the hands digging into his biceps didn’t feel it, too, “If I’m going to let this continue, I want to see him first.”

He was going to make damn sure that these men knew who really had the power in this relationship. Maybe they had him surrounded, maybe they were holding the man he loved captive, and maybe they would be strong enough to take him. But Steve would never stop. If they went back on their promise, Steve would stop at nothing to tear them down brick by brick. 

Now he had Hydra’s attention.

The man was facing him once again, cold eyes boring into Steve’s own.

“And if I said no?”

Steve smirked.

Using all his body weight, Steve threw himself at the guard on his left. He took advantage of the man’s surprise and elbowed him in the gut. The guard let out a strangled cough and doubled over. 

The other four men around Steve had released him in order to reach for their weapons, that was their first mistake. Grabbing the first guard by the back of his uniform, Steve picked him up and threw him before anyone had time to shoot. They went down like bowling pins. A guard from behind him aimed a punch for the back of Steve’s head, but he had heard him coming from a mile away. Steve ducked just in time to feel the strike tickled the top of his head. Kicking his feet out, Steve brought the soldier to the ground with him. Before the man had the time to get his bearings, Steve took him by the collar and started throwing punches at his face. Over and over again he threw blow after blow waiting for the body to go limp, seeing red as no one came to stop him. In the back of his mind, something told him this was wrong. But he pushed the thought away. Of course something was wrong. Everything was wrong. Tony wasn’t there. He had failed Tony and their was nothing he would ever be able to do that would make up for it.

He couldn’t stop himself. Steve knew he was going to kill this man if he kept using him as a human punching bag, but even his morals didn’t come to stop him. Let them all see what kind of power he wielded. He’d destroy all of them.

With one final blow, the guards head snapped right off.

Taken by surprise, Steve dropped the sparking body in his grip and took a step back.

The head had popped like a cork on a bottle of wine and bounced three times before coming to a halt and promptly letting out a puff of smoke.

The guard was dead, but Steve didn’t think he had been alive to begin with. Steve bent down and tore the leather glove off the guard’s limp hand. Where Steve should have found skin he met metal.

The guard was an automation. Steve took a look at the rows and rows of silent soldiers around him. They all were animations. A stone sank in his gut. Hydra was building disposable soldiers. Cut one head off, two more would take its place.

In his moment of surprise, the guards that he had knocked down before rushed him, keeping him well and detained this time. 

“You’re a powerful man, Rogers,” The Hydra leader said, “but we have you outnumbered and outbodied. Take him away.”

But Steve was done following orders.

“I won’t stop. You’re strong in numbers, but I have the skill to tear them apart piece by piece. I’ll destroy them all-”

“I said take him away!” the Hydra leader ordered, growing impatient with the theatrics.

The guards started to hustle him out of the room, one elbowed him in the face, forcing his teeth to sink into his lip. Blood started dripping onto the floor below him.

“I’ll destroy them, and then I’ll destroy you!” Steve bellowed, he saw the leader tense, and knew that he had successfully planted a seed of doubt.

“Take him to cell 304,” The leader said, and Steve went limp in order to make it as hard as possible to get him out of the main room, but it was no use. The guards got him into the hallway, and the secret door rumbled to a close behind him.

~~~~~~~~~~

Steve was thrown into a cell, barely able to catch himself before he landed face first on the ground. By the time he regained his balance the cell door was closed and locked leaving him all alone in a dimly lit cave.

He was going to die here, he realized. 

Maybe he hadn’t come in with a plan, but he knew this wasn’t supposed to be part of it. His teammates, friends, had been right. He was going to waste away in this cell for the rest of his miserable life, which he didn’t think would be that long a time at this point.

This had all been for nothing. Hydra had never planned on letting Tony walk free, no matter what Steve did. He knew that now.

In a moment of rage, Steve banged his fist against the solid steel door, waiting for spider web like cracks to climb along the rock wall around it, anything to give him hope that he could break it down. Nothing happened.

Steve rested his forehead along the cool metal, hoping it would help alleviate his rising temper. Deep down he always knew this would happen, he had always known this would be a cruel trick. He hadn’t cared. If there was even the slightest chance that his actions would have helped Tony, he would do anything to get him back. Now all he succeeded in doing was digging them further down the hole. 

Steve’s mind betrayed him, conjuring up scenes of the Hydra leader doubling down on his efforts to torture Tony now that he had Steve as well. Steve was sure that they would keep him alive in order to keep Steve in line. But by the time Hydra was done with Tony, would he have wished he was dead anyway? Impressions of Tony’s screams pounded in Steve’s head, knowing that each mark they made on the genius’s skin was his fault. Tony had paid for Steve’s rebellion, and finally Steve couldn't handle it anymore.

The pain had maximized since when he first felt it inflate in the tunnels, and then again when it sucker punched him in the main hall. Now it was as if someone had lit him on fire; flames charcoaled his skin and marinated his bones. Steve let out a silent scream, face contorted in pain as his heartbreak devoured him. Steve spit on the ground below, seeing saliva mixed with blood. He was finally losing his mind, and he didn’t care.

“I’m sorry, Tony,” He whispered, hoping that some way it would reach Tony’s ears. 

It had to.

It had.

“Steve?” 

Every part of Steve froze, fighting against the embers in his heart.

“Steve, is that you?”

What kind of torture was this?

“Steve, it’s me. What are you doing here? What did you do?” 

He couldn’t ignore it, even though he knew this was some trick of his imagination, or Hydra producing some new cruelty even Steve hadn’t known they were capable of.

Against his better judgment he turned around.

Warm, brown eyes met his through the darkness.

“Tony?” 


End file.
